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A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham

Rustic Wild Heart With Dried Roses

Sunday, February 7, 2016

February always brings out the urge in me to create hearts. Some years, making strawberry cakes in heart-shaped individual cupcake pans satisfies the urge for hearts. Other years, elaborate homemade Valentine cards with roses, glitter, embossing using rubber stamps, and attached heart-shaped buttons to send to friends fills that annual desire to create hearts. My sister has the same annual desires to create hearts. We both inherited some gene that drives us to make hearts in February, and sometimes we work together to create custom Valentine cards.

However, my sister has a special talent for working with flowers and her latest heart creation was this wild floral heart. Rustic wild vines create the heart shape with dried roses, grapevines, mossy twig vines, green reindeer moss, blue paper, and a tiny paper heart from scrap wrapping paper all layered on a thick wooden tree ring.

The heart shape is more suggested than rigidly defined which makes the rustic heart all the more beautiful to me. The hardest part in making this beauty is the vision for putting all the pieces together for the first time. Now that you have seen it, you probably can make a similar one to fill any February creative urge of your own to make hearts.

A surprise gift to me, the rustic heart hangs in my made-over mud room, but would be a wonderful February door hanging on a sheltered front door. Take a look at how it is constructed, beginning with a 3-4 inch thick circular tree slice as the foundation. No need to cut the wood base in the shape of a heart. The heart shape is created using vines.

From this close-up view, you can see how the vines are layered and are not flattened against the circular base. Rather, they swirl out with unkempt tendrils.

Rustic Wild Heart Layersin order of creation

Circular 3-4" thick wood base about 7-8" in diameter

Attach a picture hanging hook to the back of the wood base. Do this before creating the vine hearts to keep from smashing the hearts.

Paper (color of your choice) glued onto the wood base

Small paper heart folded with only one side glued to the wood, leaving one side standing up

Large grapevines, twisted into large heart that extends beyond the wood base edges. Glue or nail to the wood base at 2-3 places leaving most of the heart form free

Small vines clustered together to form the most recognizable heart shape. Glue to the large grapevines.

Glue dried roses randomly to the small vine heart.

Glue small clumps of green reindeer moss as shown

The rustic wild heart looks right at home hanging on a white-washed pine beadboard wall in my mud room.

French Country is the over-all look I love, but the rustic heart also goes very well with country, cottage, and shabby chic decorating styles. Can you see this rustic heart in your house?

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You and your sister are both talented. The wreath is gorgeous! I like to make valentines too, but didn't get it done this year. I'd love to see some of your creations. I wish you'd share in a post sometime. They sound lovely!

I love your red rose dried grapevine heart wreath and it turned out so much better than mine-I had such trouble with the roses, they were so fragile and many of them fell apart. Never have had this happen before.Your and your sister are talented and this is gorgeous!

Paris, France

About Botanic Bleu

French Country and Christmas are the two touchstones of Botanic Bleu. French Country is a way of life, not just decorating, and Christmas is a way of life all year, not just during the traditional holiday season. Find a little joie de vivre each day at Botanic Bleu through memories of past experiences, through savoring experiences of the present moment, and through hope in the future. Follow along for French-inspired home decor, gardening tips, and moments in France.

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